Nationality United Kingdom Poles 0 Years active 2004 Name Mark Taylor | Starts 15 Role Racing driver Wins 0 Retired 2004 | |
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Born 16 December 1977 (age 46) Wimbledon, England ( 1977-12-16 ) Teams Panther RacingAccess Motorsports | ||
Mark Taylor (born 16 December 1977 in Wimbledon, England) is a racing driver who drove in the Indy Racing League IndyCar Series. He drove in the 2004 season for two different teams.
Taylor began racing in Formula Ford in his native Britain, winning the 1997 Winter Championship. He finished 8th in the main championship in 1999 while also finishing 4th in European Formula Ford that year. He won the 2000 European championship and was also runner-up in the British championship.
Taylor moved to the British Formula Three Championship in 2001 and finished 9th. The following year he captured his first win and finished 7th in points.
In 2003 Taylor moved to the American Infiniti Pro Series. He dominated the field, winning 7 of the 12 races in the season driving the #4 car for the Fulmar Panther team. He graduated to the IndyCar Series driving the #2 for Team Menard in 2004. However, while showing good speed, particularly in qualifying, he struggled to adapt to the top series. He was involved in accidents in five of his six starts (including the Indy 500) before he was dropped in favor of Townsend Bell.
After missing only one race, he was drafted by Greg Ray's Access Motorsports to drive the #13 car. He was unable to repeat his qualifying performances from earlier in the season but showed maturity in the car to finish 7 of his 9 races for Access with a best finish of 7th place.
Having failed to secure a drive for 2005, Taylor has left motor racing and is now living back home in England with his wife Vanessa and daughter Savannah.
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